I never intended Creatures to be an adventure game or have a fixed plot at all - the idea was that you would create your own stories . . . But everyone had interpreted my mythography stuff far too literally, and people were trying to make Creatures into some kind of Norse adventure game . . .

GreenReaper: I think this was a very important decision - without the extra time for correct positioning and reworking, Creatures would never have been the game it turned out to be. Heck, it was still for DOS back then, and bibble hadn't even been conceived! :-)

It is also interesting to note the features described as possible for the rewrite, many of which would not be fully realized until Creatures 3 or Docking Station: Decided to add 5 months to schedule; more gratuitous graphics; more facial expressions; new norns (monkeylike); everybody’s norn is unique; complete rethink and rewrite of code; add hooks for extensions; allow norns to travel from one person’s system to another, via disc or modem; buy new norns; possible speech in/out.

Mid-1995: Cyberlife agrees a publishing deal with Warner Interactive and a advance of £1m is paid representing an estimated 200,000 units of sales; in fact, over half a million copies of the Creatures will eventually be sold, a large proportion overseas

19 July 1995: Creatures finally has a complete design definition - as with most software development projects, it required actually building most of the program to fully define it . . .

7 December 1998: Mattel [4] The Learning Company (which owns Mindscape, producer of the Creatures series) for $3.8 billion in stock - they soon realise they've made a mistake and resond by slashing costs like marketing budgets

"Beasts" is an exciting new game from Creature Labs based on the mysterious wilderness monster known as the Abominable Snowman or Yeti, tracks of which have been discovered in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, and Tibet. According to locals, the Yeti is but one of several unidentified creatures that occupy the highlands of southern Asia. Accounts of another giant known as Sasquatch or Bigfoot have persisted among some American Indians whose tribes inhabited the forests of the Pacific Northwest."

"As long-time fans and admirers of the Sea-Monkey phenomenon, we have always felt that a Sea-Monkey title based on our CyberLife technology would be a great success. We're very pleased to be associated with such a huge brand and we're looking forward to doing it justice with a superb product."

25 April 2000: The first episode of The Last Shee in Albia is published, introducing the Lone Shee

"Ian has the right background - first-hand experience of guiding a company through an IPO, successfully negotiating venture capital and credit lines, and actively working with analysts and the financial community. His proven track record in strategic planning and financial management make him ideally suited to support our growth and corporate development"

June 2001: Sent: This is a little bit of information that other community members might not know about. HomeCreatures was eventually closed down as it was inactive. There was originally a merge that was meant to take place between Creature Creations and HomeCreatures. The merge started going underway with Tim, myself and other Creations staff members having access to the HC databases, although with there being a few problems (I believe it was with the MGON staff, although I can't be sure) the merge never really took place.

25 July 2001: Friedeger becomes the 100,000th norn to travel through the Warp; despite Apollo's attempt to clinch the record by flooding it with many norns (Apollo's computer couldn't handle hundreds) that he copied with the help of Clucky'sMini-Copier, KDC takes the prize.

August 2001: Directors at Creatures Labs realise they are running low on money again and begin searching for new funding options

25 April 2002: Creature Labs non-executive director Les Edgar is rumoured to be interested in purchasing Creature Labs, 3i having pulled out after conducting further due-dilligence on current management

May 2002: 3i is not willing to accept the executive board's recomendation that Creature Labs be sold to board members for £75,000 when it had invested £2.5m just 18 months ago, and new options are demanded

27 May 2002: An extraordinary general meeting is held, presided over by Creature Labs chief executive Chris McKee in which options to save the jobs at the company (numbering somewhere between 50 and 43) are discussed; a new holding company is subsequently formed with an infusion of £400,000 in addition to the £75,000 previously offered, but shareholders who fought hard to preserve their interest in the company predict that with a prior "burn rate" of £2m in 15 months:

"if the management doesn’t improve and the business made more commercial it could be back in trouble very soon"

It's been suggested that this was just one grumpy investor, and that Business Weekly were being overly negative. --GreenReaper

28 February 2003: Ashley Harman (aka Frimlin) leaves Cyberlife - as he packs up on the 20th he has this to say:

It was a bit odd to be standing in the centre of the Creature Labs office, packing away the cute stuffed toy Norns and Grendels I've accumulated from fellow Creatures fans. As I looked around the office, there were no other Norns to be seen. But it's been steadily more and more like that over the last couple of years -- I should have been used to it. But the moment spoke to me, all the same.

15 April 2003: Entraline/Cyberlife is liquidated subsequent to its final extraordinary general meeting - reasons cited include insolvency of their German publishing partners and a poor outlook in the general gaming industry; shareholders tack on "poor management"

16 April 2003: Ian Saunter gets a call from Mark Bevan, who had worked on FightBox and was now with the BBC, asking about Evo Warriors - although CL/Entraline is now dead, Ian convinces a friend who is tired of consulting (Jeremy Cooke) to fund development of a reduced version of the game, which will end up being BAMZOOKi

28 April 2003: Business Weekly states that in addition to sums owed to investors 3i, NW Brown, Hermann Hauser and Peter Dawe, the former Entraline owed £75,000 to its administrators plus £200,000 to the Inland Revenue, and that the employees had been working for the last three months without pay; the same investor as before said:

'"We have heard the management team may try to make a case for buying the assets. If this does turn out to be the case, messing up a business, trashing all the debts and keeping the assets does not seem right. This company collapsed because of the management’s lack of management and sales skills. One hopes they will emerge from this debacle empty-handed."

3 July 2003: Gameware Europe is formally announced as the purchaser of assets and intellectual property rights of Cyberlife after rumours from former CL staff - CEO Jeremy Cooke claims to be "dedicated, not only to the continuing development of the innovative Creatures series, but also toward the ongoing creation of these uniquely entertaining A.I. concepts for television and mobile-phones" and notes that there were "many excellent UK studios hit hard by the present market conditions" - our first priority is to get the Internet-based offering, Creatures Docking Station, back on-line and assure the loyal fan-base of our intention to continue to provide them with entertaining Creatures concepts

"Creatures-wise, we’ve been continuing our quest to find partners with the right level of commitment needed to take forward the series. It’s bound to come as something of a disappointment to the many devoted Creatures fans that regularly check here for better news on this front, to hear that, so far, we have not secured such a partner. True, we have re-released all the older titles now in Europe, and these remain available to purchase from our Shop. We are also continuing to host and support the Docking Station Hub, which, I hope, does demonstrate our ongoing commitment to reviving the game and bringing along new offerings based on the Shee-universe. Still, I’m afraid we will have to wait yet a while for this to become a reality. And, to be frank, we have to face the prospect that it might never happen!"

25 November 2006 - Community member KnyteTrypper passes away of pneumonia at the age of 56. Efforts are immediately made to console the community by his friends and family. KnyteTrypper's C3/DS Nexus is archived.

27 January 2008Gameware Forums close temporarily. A message that says "It will be back when people learn to play nice, stop being annoying and stop reporting every other post" is left. This is later changed to a more generic message. The forums return on the 4th of February. On the 7th, the off-topic, site announcements, and RP subforums are removed in an attempt to discourage spam.

19 July 2008 The Gameware Forum is closed again, with a message saying "The forum is closed until further notice as there is no-one currently available to moderate. Should the situation change, a notification will be posted here."

29 March 2013: Fishing Cactus runs a second Creatures 4 contest, The Creatures 4 DNA Easter Eggs Contest , users must participate to crack a Norn egg open for a chance to win a limited edition Norn figurine. At first, the server used to host the contest suffered technical problems due to heavy traffic, but eventually it manage to finish. A list of the winners can be found on Fishing Cactus' Facebook page here .

19 June 2014: The Creatures Online Facebook page launches a contest to win a CO character statue, a CO branded notebook and an exclusive iOS beta code of Creatures Online during the soft launch. Only Facebook users from Europe are eligible to win the prize.